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kids keeping me far too busyOriginally Posted by Lovey80
looks like he's got the pics sorted.
Compare Cols response to an issue with one of his products to a couple of others who have not handled it too well. Col has certainly enhanced his reputation again. Others jump up and down telling us how badly they are being treated while Col comes up with a solution to fix the problem. Its great to see someone supporting their product after all he was put through
A Proud Member of
"The Rebel Alliance"
kids keeping me far too busy
Your lucky its a fisher and only needs a few issues worked out. Just think mate, it could of been much worse, the boat could have been a Noble.
Timmy
looking good- might need to amend her name to "Clean-ed Up".
Col- let me know when I can drop off mine once you finish Chaos's.
gibbo
Well my boat has been fixed, but.............
After drilling out all the bad bits, cutting out the more conerntrated areas and doing the repairs, Col took one look at it and said.......
"Nah, not good enough. Let's cut the entire section out and replace any dodgy material with big slabs of new stuff. From the stringer to the keel, replace it."
Paul must love a meat axe......
Boat won't be back until next week now, but this is going to provide the best and strongest repair. And you will not notice any repair.
Okay, I said.
Pics to follow.
Tim
Tim
I think you have finally got the best solution. Bloody lot of work and trial was worth the gamble but the full plate repair is better.
If the metal was good I am surprised that the repaired section wasn't as good as new so does that mean the metal was not good and was hard to reweld? Or was it just that Col or his welder being a perfectionist and wanting it perfect visually? Does that mean that the whole plate thickness had been erroded so it is infact thinner all over the keel? .
If there is a budding metalurgist on here it would be interesting for them to have a look under the microscope and see what has happened to the metal structure or if it was faulty metal in the start.
Out of interest I have seen a yacht that was previously perfect that was hit by lightning. It was a alloy hull and mast and after repairs that boat always had a corrosion problem. Metal was tested etc etc and no end of ideas were looked at and to put it nicely it was never the same again with odd corrosion with no explained reason. Metal can be odd sometimes. I have never seen a boat with batterys removed and tested all over with a multimeter eat away annodes and have corrosion like that. It was scrapped in the end after a couple more owners sold it on.
Well,
I have just got back from Origin.
The real story is that the boat had its own eco system happening inside the hull.
There was weed growing and a muddy sludge through out.
The drain holes, or mouse holes if you will, had been blocked for a considerable time, so water was filled in these front compartments, up to the height of the frames.
Lifting the nose of the boat at home still wasn't draining it as the angle would have had to have been too acute.
The aluminium was, in some sections, badly corroded.
Even to the point where the was just the outside layers of the aluminium were intact but the inside was a honeycomb of sorts.
The welding process only resulted in bigger holes being blown out.
So, all the iffy material has been removed, only good meat has been left.
New 6 mm plated inserted with extra stringer arrangements welded in as extra support. These go the full length of the replacement plates plus they are welded to the frames at each end also.
Quite a mouthful, but I hope you get the picture.
I will post some piccies when I get some.
Tim
Hi Tim
Sounds like there was a need for bigger / more "mouse" holes. Luckily you bought from the right bloke who stands behind his product.
One would hope yours is the only boat so affected but yours was somehow filled with crud that blocked the holes was it not?
Cheers
Chimo
What could go wrong.......................
Hopefully Chimo,
I'm the only one that has this problem, however, we will never know what is under the floor of most of our boats.
Glass boats have a sealed floor and usually the first sign of damage is a spongy floor, and this generally leads to rotton stringers and transom, and the modern plate boat with wash decks will also be a mystery.
As Col has said, stick the hose up there regularly and make sure they are well elevated, and that's about as much as one can do.
However, if the crap can't get in, in the first place, then this is not an issue.
Hence the need for good bungs, properly sealed decks so water can't get down from the top, and of course, regular inspections and maintainence.
At least with aluminium, it's a case of cut and weld, and knowing someone who knows what they're talking about, phew!
Tim
Glad to hear that the Fisher is being fixed. Col will have it as good if not better than new.
Cheers, Grant
Tim,
“I'm the only one that has this problem; however, we will never know what is under the floor of most of our boats.”
That’s the very point I made with my naval architect. I made it clear that I wanted to be able to access every square inch of my plate alloy hull.
I just can’t understand why most alloy or glass boat manufacturers don’t have any real adequate access points in the floor.
I have a large soft patch in my floor that would be around 2.3 meters by 1.6 meters. Most boats early or late have no real access points that would make it easier to check inside the hull, in most cases you have to cut the floor up to gain access, seems crazy to me.
Just think Tim, if you could have been able to lift the floor you may have been able to save a lot of money and worry. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Stuart,
I think your point is very valid, and if I get another custom platey built, I would more than likely get the said inspection ports.
I am, however, unsure of what a boat builder would say about this as the only downside I could see to it, would be compromising the integrity of the top deck with respect to how "sealed" the top would be from the underfloor.
If it were possible to keep it fully waterproof, then, why not.
After seeing how bad the damage was in some spots, I wonder how this little boat floated. Considering how far offshore and in some of the conditions it has seen, I'm counting my lucky stars.
I don't fancy swimming home with the Noahs. I have an underfloor bilge pump as peace of mind and think that should be a must on anyones list.
Another option would be, perhaps some sort of imaging we all could access at regular intervals.
For example, if someone had a camera they could shove up your bung hole annually, then there is your peace of mind.
A little like a colonoscopy for the older boat.
I would get mine checked regularly after this. Couldn't hurt.
Tim
Your boat may feel more lively after this without the unintended ballast.
My glass boat shouldn't rot because Baysport boats use a glass chassis that is hard setting foam filled.... So no wood to rot. You can see a short video of it on their website.
Even so I would be pleased to be able to see every bit of her like I could with my previous boat... A glass yacht.
Propper inspection ports are expensive and time consuming to install. Cheap ones or crap designs are more trouble than they are worth.
Every plumber has a inspection camera and most mechanics have one that goes down the spark plug hole. Most can be connected to a bigscreen these days unlike mine that is a older fibreoptic inspection scope. I use it drilling a hole first before I cut into a deck or into a void so I don't cut a structural element, fuel pipe etc.
Ebay has em now for a couple hundred bucks and for $20 you can connect a bullet webcam up to your laptop and probe anywhere you like.
So you take her out yet Tim?
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